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South Carolina governor Nikki Haley recently signed the Tucker Hipps Transparency Act into law. The law, stated in full below, will require all public universities in South Carolina to post public records of any conduct violations pertaining to drugs and alcohol, sexual assaults and incidents of hazing.

According to Total Frat Move, Hipps was a Sigma Phi Epsilon pledge at Clemson University when his body was found under a bridge in 2014. The Hipps family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the three fraternity members, the local and national chapters of the fraternity, and Clemson University, with a pending trial date in February 2017.

An act to amend the code of laws of South Carolina, 1976, to enact the 'Tucker Hipps Transparency Act’ by adding section 59-101-210 so as to provide that beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year, public institutions of higher learning, excluding technical colleges, shall maintain reports of actual findings of certain misconduct by members of fraternities and sororities formally associated with the institution, to specify information that must be included and must be excluded, to provide requirements for updating and preserving reports, to provide institutions shall make the reports available to the public and online, to provide members of the public may seek redress for suspected violations under the freedom of information act; and to provide specific requirements for the initial reports each institution shall compile and make available; and to provide the act expires three years after its effective date absent further action by the general assembly.

Hipps' mother, Cindy, told WYFF News 4 that she hopes the new law will put an end to hazing at colleges. "If you know that your infractions are going to be listed for the public to see, then you may clean your act up a little bit."

Let's hope that this helps so that there are no further students who end up getting hurt because of irresponsible behavior.

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